1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved method and system for developing an application and in particular to a method and system for providing complex objects for use in developing an application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, many programmers and application designers utilize an application builder to develop a complex application. An application builder is a program that allows a user to develop a complex application. Typically, in a graphic user interface (GUI), the application builder provides a GUI interface to the user creating an application. The user may select various objects, such as a window, text field, button, or slider, for use in the application under development. The user can "drag and drop" objects into the desired locations for the application under development.
Objects requiring actions are referred to as "source" or objects and include application specific objects defined by the user and predefined system objects, such as pop-up menus, scroll bars, sliders, push buttons, and menu bars with pull-down menus for further selections. Actions on a source object may generate another object, which is the target object. A target object may become a source object that is associated with some further actions. In developing an application, a user may create a number of complex objects employing the objects provided by the application builder. Many times, each of the complex objects may only have minor variations from the other complex object created by the user. Currently, the user must create each complex object from scratch. In fact, often times, a user may recreate a complex object for different applications under development.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and system for increasing the efficiency of application building by reducing the need for the user to recreate complex objects.